(Ep. 12) There’s more to your story: experience a new life today as you navigate your protectors.

What if the very thing you're most praised for is actually protecting a wound nobody sees?In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise dig into protectors — the coping mechanisms we picked up as children to feel safe, and quietly kept using for the rest of our lives. Some look terrible from the outside: addiction, self-sabotage. But many look wonderful, people pleasing, over-responsibility, performance, staying happy for everyone else, and those are the ones that earn us applause while slowly wearing us down.Laura compares a protector to a childhood blankie: familiar, comforting, and something you can't just rip out of someone's hands. That's why she refuses to tell anyone to simply stop — you can't remove the covering without caring for the pain underneath it. She and Brian talk through the unmet needs that drive protectors (not feeling like enough, not feeling heard), why fight, flight, freeze, and fawn are all attempts to be okay, and the exhausting truth at the center: protectors have to be maintained manually, while real healing runs automatically. Plus, a tender turn — how to help a child who fawns, without shaming the sweetness out of them.In this episode: 🔹 What protectors are — and why the ones society praises can be the hardest to see 🔹 The blankie principle: why Laura never tells anyone to just stop their protector 🔹 The unmet needs underneath: not feeling like enough, and not feeling heard 🔹 Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn — how each one is your attempt to be okay 🔹 Why protectors must be maintained manually — and how healing becomes automatic 🔹 How to help a child who fawns, by treating it like any other trigger and finding the tender emotion📩 Get your free Weekly Dose of Compassion — two short notes in your inbox every week. One to speak over yourself. One from Laura: https://www.lauraduncan.com/pl/2148814868🔗 Learn more: https://triggeredandtrue.com https://lauraduncan.com